David Salstrom, 92, an Army veteran who lives in Batavia, began his day Wednesday by taking a 20-minute flight inside an open cockpit World War II plane.
“I haven’t had any experience in a plane like this,” he said Wednesday before his flight at the DuPage Airport in West Chicago. “I came here about five years ago to do something like this, and we got down to the last two guys and there was rain in the air so we couldn’t go. This is the first time I’ve ever been in this type of plane. I’m excited.”
A handful of veterans who live at the Covenant Living at the Holmstad in Batavia enjoyed the ride of a lifetime Wednesday after taking a flight in a 1942 Boeing Stearman at the airport.
Veterans including Dave Coppin, Jeff Frantz, Dave Furholman and Salstrom began taking flights one at a time shortly after 9:45 a.m. in a plane used to train military aviators in the 1940s.
The flights were offered courtesy of the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation, which was described in a press release from Covenant Living as “a nonprofit organization founded by Darryl Fisher in 2011 to honor U.S. military veterans living in long-term care facilities.”
To date, the group has offered over 6,700 Dream Flights to both veterans and older adults throughout the nation, according to the release.
“We have participated with the Dream Flights organization in the past and as they make their way through the country,” said Randy Eilts, director of public relations for Covenant Living Communities and Services. “They reach out to different senior living facilities and ask if there are any residents that would like to participate.
“We’ve had flights taken in 2019 and 2021, and we’ve had more than four people participate on previous flights,” Eilts said. “This year, everyone in this was in the Army but it gives them a chance to get up in an airplane and have the experience of a lifetime. Some may have flown in planes in the past and others didn’t, but this is a chance to do something out of the ordinary for a change.”
Jeff Klosky of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a pilot for American Airlines who also served as a member of the Air Force for 23 years, noted he has been piloting Dream Flights the past four years, and that “with the military you’re serving something greater than yourself” and that he was looking for something that offered that same feeling.
“I’ve done 185 of these flights,” Klosky said minutes before taking off with his first passenger on Wednesday. “The biggest takeaway or feedback I get is that after the flight we just get these huge smiles. Most people haven’t seen the Earth from up that high.”
Frantz said he didn’t fly at all in the Army and was looking forward to the flight.
“I’m not scared. When I was younger I wanted to fly with the Navy but I’m color blind so that took care of that,” he said.
Strohm said his Army work involved “sitting in an office.”
“I’m fine with doing this. I’m not scared or nervous,” he said. “I’ve not been in a single-engine airplane for at least 20 years.”
Furholman said he also did not fly in the Army but that he had been in trainer planes before.
“I was in the front of these and the pilot was in the back,” he said.
Furholman said he had been looking forward to the flight.
“I found out about this in the last week or two and I was ready to go,” he said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.